Four seniors say good-bye on Senior Night

By Jason Stuebe - Sports Editor

For seniors Antonio Andonov, Che Jordan, Joe Miller and Brian Williams, last Thursday night turned out to be the final time they would grace the hardwood in the not-so-historic halls of the UIS Assembly Closet.
Sure, it was the end of the chapter, but it also gave us a good chance to look back on four fine careers spanning from the very beginning of men’s basketball at UIS to only a single semester.

Men's basketball seniors (front to back, left to right): Joe Miller, Che Jordan, Brian Williams and Antonio Andonov

East St. Louis native Che Jordan came to the Stars after playing one season at Idaho State and two years at Lakeland Community College. Even though Che only played a little over one semester at UIS, his impact was felt instantaneously. Jordan shot a cool 40.1 percent from the field in his 27 games played at UIS all the while nabbing a team high 100 defensive rebounds.
“Che has been a terrific athlete for us, especially in the last 10-15 games,” said head coach Kevin Gamble, “he truly helped out the best he could.”
Brian Williams came to UIS two years ago from Heartland Community College. In his two years as a Prairie Star, Williams averaged over 45.5 percent from the field and wowed the nearly 300 in attendance at the Senior Night game when he slammed the alley-oop from Antonio Puckett in the early seconds.
“Williams was a good guy, always practiced hard and played hard,” said Gamble, “he’s the type of guy you would want, he didn’t complain but just went about his business.”
Joe Miller transferred to UIS after playing a pair of seasons at Lewis and Clark Community College. In his two years at UIS, Miller established himself as one of the cornerstones of the UIS bench, averaging 54.3 percent from the field, 39.6 from behind the arc and an amazing team high 79.5 percent from the charity stripe. Miller averaged 6.6 points this year and was recognized for his abilities when he was named to the Drury Classic All Tournament Team in 2004.
“Joe’s a hardnosed kid,” said Gamble “it’d be a coach’s dream to have 12 kids just like him.”
Finally, Antonio Andonov came to UIS after a stint at the University of Southern Indiana to join the first-ever squad of men to hit the hardwood for UIS. Red-shirting last year due to an injury, Andonov came back in full force this year. In his two years of playing, Andonov averaged 45 percent from the field and recorded 20 steals and 22 blocks. Recording a double-double earlier this year by scoring and rebounding an even 10, Andonov is sure to be one to remember.
“Being 6’8” you would think he was a power guy, but that’s not Antonio, he’s all finesse,” said Gamble, “and he was pretty good at it even when he was outweighed by most of the guys he was playing in the conference.”
During pre-game festivities honoring the seniors, Prairie Stars Athletics and all those in attendance also honored graduating cheerleaders Stephanie Jeczalik, who has cheered for over 11 years, and Jenny Gallagher, who cheered for eight years.

WBU gets their Eagle on, tops Stars 71-64

By Jason Stuebe - Sports Editor

For the players and fans, last Thursday night was the end of the home basketball season. It was a time to celebrate the accomplishments of seniors soon to pass and get one last look at who to watch for next season. It wasn’t, however, a very pretty game to watch, as the Stars dropped to the Eagles of Williams Baptist 71-64.
Looking forward to improve their AMC record and possibly end up at .500 by season’s end, the Stars stood poised and ready to beat a team they had come oh-so-close to earlier in the season. Even after a breathtaking start that featured an Antonio Puckett alley-oop to senior Brian Williams, the Stars couldn’t get rolling and quickly fell behind.
Trailing by as much as 10 in the first half, it looked as though the Stars were well on their way to another game of asking “what if?” That wasn’t the case, however, as the Stars rallied, pulling to within one after an Antonio Andanov jumper notched the score at 26-25 with a little over 3:00 to play in the first half.
After taking a 27-32 lead into the locker room, the Eagles came out aggressive, possibly too aggressive in the second half, which wound up leaving their biggest scorer, Jeremy Bell on the bench in foul trouble.
Though giving up three straight 3s to WBU, the ever-resilient Stars came back to eventually tie the game at 51 apiece with 9:25 on the clock after a tough Colin Crull play in the paint. By 6:30, Crull had fought through another pair of points to put the Stars on top for the first time since the infant minutes of the ball game, 55-54.
All things considered, it appeared as though things would start going the Stars’ way and a win might be pulled out. That’s when the wheels fell off the apple cart.
A drained three by the Eagles’ Brandon Watson to open up the final two minutes of play set the tone. UIS immediately took a time-out to draw up the plan of attack. The plan never formulated, as a turnover by freshman Aaron Leonard handed the ball to the Eagles and led to desperation fouls which drove up the score even more.
“We started playing better, then we started making defensive mistakes,” said head coach Kevin Gamble, “They made us pay for that.”
“When we do what we are supposed to do, we have a better team.”
The Stars were led by Crull, who wound up with 14 points after a slow start in the first half. Puckett collected 12 of his own and Che Jordan, who closed out his career at home, contributed 10 points and five boards. Collectively, the Stars shot 37.3 percent from the field, a dismal 12.5 percent from behind the arc compared to WBU’s 50 percent, and 55.6 percent from the stripe.
The loss dropped the Stars to 8-20 overall and 4-7 in the AMC. The loss also means that the Stars more than likely will not be playing at home for the opening round of the AMC Tournament. Ironically enough, it looks as though the Stars will now play at Williams Baptist tomorrow night in a rematch.
In the end, that’s alright with Gamble, who hopes the team can learn from their mistakes. “Hopefully we will learn – it sure would be a shame if we go down there in the tournament and make the same mistakes again.”

Stuebe’s Sporting Goods
The great unknown

By Jason Stuebe - Sports Editor

First off, let me welcome you to our new home. If you went to the back page instinctively, I apologize. After a hostile takeover, the back page has been relinquished – we gave ‘em hell but lost the war; my and Mark’s editors just outrank us.
Now, down to business.
Maybe you have heard about them. They wear a lot of orange with some trimmings in blue. They have names like Dee, Deron, Luther, James, Roger, Jack, Rich, Nick and Warren. Maybe you’ve heard of their outstanding 28-0 season record.
Then again, if all you watch is ESPN, you probably haven’t.
For well over three months, this entire region has been sent into a frenzy, but you wouldn’t be able to tell if you were out of sight of the spaceship on the prairie in the southern trappings of Urbana, Illinois.
No, you wouldn’t know that in this, their centennial season, they are off to their best start, holding down the best record in the entire NCAA and nearing the best start in Big Ten history. Yeah, we’re saying best start and here we are, two games away from closing out the regular season. This stuff’s just getting warmed up.
You wouldn’t know that they recently clinched a share of the Big Ten title. You wouldn’t know that each member of the team has their own story to tell – their own human interest piece that could fill volumes.
Nope. You wouldn’t. Thanks to the Dickie Vs, the Digger Phelpses, the episodes of PTI, the Andy Katzes of the world, this little orange gem amidst the cornfields is little known. And you know something; this far along I don’t think I would want it any other way.
Let them ignore us. Let them belittle us. Let them tout their Carolina Blue, their Dukies, and their Jay Hawks.
And let them all be green with envy, red of embarrassment, and orange with surprise when the Illini prove them wrong this March/April.
Yeah, I said April because that’s where this team is headed, barring the four horsemen, a plague of locusts or a bad case of bubonic plague.
How is it that the number one team in the nation could get so little airtime? So little recognition for such great accomplishments, it all seems so unfair right? Well, damn it, it is.
While we are forced to watch Kansas lose three straight to the likes of Virginia Tech or Duke scrape by a dying Georgia Tech, all on national television mind you, we are also forced to watch those orange-clad whiz bangs on ESPN regional (Thanks WCIA).
As the beloved Rodney Dangerfield would say, “No respect!”
Kansas drops two straight games and goes to No. 7. They lose another one and I bet they fall to only No. 8. If Illinois lost only one fluke game, I guarantee you we’d be ranked No. 12 by the next Monday.
Hell, I doubt we even get one of the mini-balls from Sports Illustrated if, Lord willing, we win this thing.
But in the end it’s OK. If there’s one thing that I have learned from this team, it’s that we don’t need the notoriety, we don’t need Dickie V or Jay Bilas to cover all our games. Why? Because as the team notoriously proclaims in practice “we do this”...with or without them. As always, go Stars…and go Illini!

Campus Rec Briefs

Ice Skating is happening this Friday night from 7-9pm at the Nelson Recreation Center in Lincoln Park. If you are a UIS student or Rec Center Member with a valid i-card and you sign-up in the Campus Recreational Sports Office before 1pm this Friday, March 4, you can skate for free! After that time it will cost you $3. Non-Rec Center Members and Non-UIS must pay $5. The fee includes skate admission and skate rental. Transportation will be provided for those individuals who have signed-up in advance and indicated on their registration forms that they need to ride the vans. The free shuttle will leave at 6:30pm from the Rec Center. Bring your i-card to the Nelson Recreation Center Friday night to check-in with the UIS Rec Staff at the door. Enjoy a night out having fun ice skating!

The Intramural 5x5 Basketball League continues with league play this Saturday, March 5 with the Stars playing The Losers at 1:30pm. Following at 2:30pm, NIRSA takes on undefeated HUGE. The outcomes of Saturday’s games will determine who will play for the league championship on Sunday at 2:30pm. Come out and cheer the intramural teams in the last weekend of play for this season!

The Intramural Badminton Women’s Doubles league declared team V&S as league winners. V&S defeated EMC (Susan Nguyen and Kymeicko Williams) in the championship match 15-12, 15-5 on Monday night. Congratulations to Vasantha Gudiwada and Srilakshmi Miryala as IM Champions. Final standings in the women’s league saw V&S undefeated at 4-0. Second place went to EMC, third place to A&K (Alisha Backus and Kaley Noel), and fourth place to the Never Befores (Danielle Crossen and Jessica Lay). Congratulations to all team participants for playing in the league.

Toning & Conditioning Fitness Class Session C begins following Spring Break. This session meets Mondays and Fridays from 12:10-12:50pm in the UIS Gym. This session’s 11 classes run from March 21 through April 29 (no class on Good Friday, March 25). Students and Rec Center Members with a valid i-card pay $9; Non-Rec Center Members pay $27. Register and pay the appropriate fee in the Campus Recreational Sports Office in the Fitness Center before class begins on March 21.

Informal Open Recreation Hours for the Rec Center (Fitness Center and Gym) for the upcoming Spring Break will change. Watch for e-mail announcements and posted signs at the Rec Center for the revised hours. Participants wishing to use the above facilities must submit a valid i-card upon entering the Rec Center.

HOW CAN I LEARN ABOUT CAMPUS REC SPORTS NEWS?
(1) Send an Email to RecSports@uis.edu to be included in the 2004-2005 Campus Rec Sports News List to receive personal up-to-date information about future events and activities. (2) Click on “Public Folders>All Public Folders>UIS>Announcements>Campus” on your UIS e-mail account and read the e-mail announcements sent out by UIS Campus Rec Sports. (3) Check out the website at www.uis.edu/recsports/. (4) Contact the Campus Recreational Sports (CRS) Office located in the Fitness Center (SLB 118) or call 206-6658.

Snapshots

Men’s Basketball
UIS vs. Missouri Baptist (St. Louis, Mo.)

AMC Conference Standings
1. Missouri Baptist 10-1
2. McKendree 9-3
3. Columbia 8-3
4. Williams Baptist 5-6
5. UI-Springfield 4-7
6. Hannibal LaGrange 2-9
7. Harris Stowe 0-10

Women’s Basketball
UIS vs. Missouri Baptist (St. Louis, Mo.)
The UIS women closed out the regular season with yet another loss to Missouri Baptist, this time 78-64. The loss dropped the women’s overall season record to 7-21 (3-11 in the AMC).
UIS was able to maintain a 35-35 tie at the half but MBU’s tough defense proved to be too much for the Stars.

AMC Conference Standings
1. Columbia College 13-0
2. McKendree College 12-1
3. Missouri Baptist 7-6
4. Hannibal LaGrange 7-6
5. William Woods 6-7
6. Williams Baptist 4-9
7. UI-Springfield 3-11
8. Harris Stowe 0-13

Women’s Softball
UIS vs. Trinity (Edwardsville, Ill.)
The UIS women’s softball team opened up their 2005 campaign in a big way, braving the cold and defeating Trinity 6-2 in the SIUE Tournament.
Leading the way for the Stars were seniores Christie Wantland and Kari Landes. Wantland went 2-2 on the day, while Landes notched a few RBIs with a triple.

UIS vs. (McKendree) (Edwardsville, Il.)
In a game that was supposed to be played on the previous Saturday but cancelled because there’s only so many hours in a day, the Stars dropped in a heartbreaking 7-5 loss to McKendree.

UIS vs. (SIUE) (Edwardsville, Ill.)
The Stars close out their first tournament with another loss this time coming at the hands of the Cougars of SIUE in a 9-0 route.

The home opener for the Stars is scheduled to be March 9th against Olivet Nazarene at 2:00 p.m. but with the last two scheduled home openers cancelled, don't hold your breath.

Four seniors say good-bye on on Senior Night

WBU gets their Eagle on, tops Stars 71-64

Stuebe’s Sporting Goods

Campus Rec Briefs

Snapshots